The average Indian would have to work for up to 60 days to buy Apple iPhone XS

As if the iPhone XS wasn't already expensive enough, this latest data suggests how difficult it is to actually be able to afford one.

The Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, like every other Apple iPhone before on launch day, are rather expensive. While US pricing starts at $999, what really stands out about the new iPhones is the India pricing – the 64GB base variant of the iPhone XS starts at Rs 99,900, with the 512GB option on the Apple iPhone XS Max retails at a whopping Rs 144,900. And in a price-conscious market like India, that’s a lot of money.

In fact, for the average Indian, it will take up to 59.9 days of work to be able to afford the new iPhone XS. A new study by Polish website Picodi.com has analyzed the average wage in a number of countries based on publicly available data, and figured out just how many days of work go into buying the base variant of the Apple iPhone XS, depending on where in the world you live and the cost of the device in your country. India is fourth from the bottom in terms of affordability of the new Apple iPhone XS.

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The iPhone XS is least affordable in the Philippines, where it would take the average citizen 156.6 days to earn enough to afford the new iPhone. Pakistan and Argentina also rank below India on the list at 88.6 days and 60.1 days respectively. The least amount of days worked for the average citizen to be able to afford the phone is just 5.1 days in Switzerland. And while you’d assume that the United States would be among the top nations because of the low purchase price, Apple’s home nation ranks 6th at 8.4 days.

While these figures may sound intriguing, it’s important to remember that the typical buyer of an Apple iPhone XS in India is unlikely to earn a salary near the net average figure. Being a luxury product, the iPhone XS or any previous iPhone models aren’t typically the choice of the average smartphone buyer in India, which has typically favored affordable Android smartphones priced at under Rs 10,000. And the 59.9-day figure purely considers the net wages of Indians, without considering living costs at all. This shows just how expensive the iPhone XS really is in a country like India.

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Developed nations including much of Europe, Australia, Japan and the UAE are among the countries where the iPhone is the most ‘affordable’ for the average buyer as per the number of days of work needed. It’s no wonder then that these are the countries where Apple sells the most iPhones, while countries such as India and China tend to favor more affordable Android smartphones.